Investing.com - The U.S. dollar is trading lower against nearly all of its major rivals during Thursday's Asian session as traders' fears regarding the tenuous financial situation in Cyprus ebb a bit.
In Asian trading Thursday, EUR/USD rose 0.02% to 1.2935 on news that Cyprus is in talks with Russia regarding a loan extension. Those talks produced little in the way of results Wednesday. Still, there is speculation that Cyprus could turn to Russia for a bailout in an effort to dodge another vote on a deposit tax, a move that would assuredly irk policymakers from the European union in the process.
GBP/USD rose 0.04% to 1.5105. On Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne cut the 2013 economic growth forecast to 0.6% from a previous forecast of 1.2% while official data showed that the claimant count in the U.K. fell by 1,500 in February, less than an expected decline of 5,000, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.8%.
USD/JPY fell 0.125 to 95.90 as traders continue to use the yen as a safe-haven alternative to the greenback. Japan's Ministry of Finance said the country's trade balance fell to a seasonally adjusted JPY-1.09 trillion in February from JPY-0.74 trillion in January. Analysts expected a February reading of JPY-1.01 trillion.
USD/CHF fell 0.07% to 0.9445 while USD/CAD fell 0.04% to 1.0256.
Traders took profits in the U.S. dollar after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at near zero and made no changes to its monthly USD85 billion bond-buying program known as quantitative easing.
NZD/USD surged 0.41% to 0.8257 after Statistics New Zealand said that New Zealand's GDP jumped 1.5% in the fourth quarter, easily topping analysts' expectations of growth of 1.2%. The country's economic output rose 0.2% in the third quarter.
AUD/USD is flat at 1.0378 while the U.S. Dollar Index is lower by 0.03% at 83.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
